Capitol Hill, the land of Seattle’s new ‘marketplaces,’ could be getting another indoor retail experience in the heart of Pike/Pine.

Thanks to its landmarks designation, current development designs for the former Value Village building on 11th Ave call for maintaining the expansive open floor plan in the building’s street level space. Developers from Legacy Commercial are exploring the possibility of transforming that 12,000-square-foot area into the type of food and retail destination most recently popularized by Chophouse Row just up the street.

“That is one of the options that has been discussed, but there is no decision on what type of tenants will occupy the space,” said Phillip Bozarth-Dreher, an architect on the project with Ankrom Moisan.

It has been over a year since plans to redevelop the The Stranger and Value Village buildings were stalled due to the 11th and E Pine buildings winning landmark status. Since then developers have ditched plans to build over The Stranger’s White Motor Company building and have focused on a 5-story office and retail project next-door at the 1918-built Kelly Springfield Motor Truck Company building.

All projects involving landmarks protected buildings are required to have their designs approved by the city’s Architectural Review Committee. After making little progress in repeated meetings with the committee, architects on the Kelly Springfield project said they are finding some common ground with the board by preserving the building’s iconic retail space.

“Most of the public experiences the first floor and that’s what we need to save,” said Ankrom principal Mack Selberg.

On Monday, architects presented their latest designs for the Kelly Springfield building on site to the Pike/Pine Urban Neighborhood Council. The presentation was given inside V2, a temporary arts space that opened inside the former thrift shop.

The Kelly Springfield project would create 65,000 square feet of office space in two buildings on 11th Ave between Pike and Pine. Three stories of new offices over Kelly Springfield would be connected on the south side to a narrow five story office building that would fill-in the block’s current sunken parking lot. The project would include 31 parking spots in an underground garage.

Architects also showed off their plans for a newly reconfigured streetscape along 11th Ave that would replace a handful of parking space with landscaped “bulbs.”

Angled spaces could be filled in with parklets later, to allow retail spaces to spill out onto the streetscape. The design team believes that the combination of the angled parking and the opportunity to create customizable parklets for future retail lends itself to the artistic and unique character of the Pike/Pine corridor.

In order to comply with Seattle zoning code requirements, designs call for a small loading zone on 11th Ave as part of the new structure. PPUNC chair John Feit cautioned the architects that the East Design Review Board may take issue with having a loading area and parking entrance on the 11th Ave “green street.” Concerns over a proposed garage entrance one block north at the Hugo House development nearly caused a significant redesign of the project.

The 11th Ave development team will be taking its plans before the East Design Review Board on June 8th.

The office-over-marketplace concept would not be a first on Capitol Hill. Liz Dunn’s preservation-minded Chophouse Row opened last June on 11th Ave between Pike and Union complete with high-tech office tenants above. Prior to that, Jerry Everard redeveloped the Central Agency building at 10th and Seneca — both projects chock full of food and drink options and a few small niches of retail. Meanwhile plans for a retail bazaar are in place for the the future Broadway development to surround the recently opened Capitol Hill Station.